Where Where You When...
Wed., March 31, 11:45 AM
I got this – my kind of quiz – from trinity63. I was always in Connecticut, and after 1968 I was always in the New Haven area. So the “where” doesn’t change much. I thought I should add my bit from the past. So much of the time we all listened to the radio; it’s my lifeline to the world.
Sunday morning, November 25, 1963
I was listening to the radio when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I ran downstairs and told my parents Oswald had been shot, and they turned on the television. And we saw it. I think that was the first time the general public realized the power of videotape.
We now return you to the quiz as trinity printed it.
When Mt. St. Helens blew (05/18/1980)
I don’t remember the exact time it went. It seems to me that it had been simmering for some time and we knew it would go soon. From the east coast, it wasn’t nearly as scary.
When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (01/28/1986)
I was working, not truly aware that a shuttle was flying that day. One of our Israeli colleagues came in and said, “that beautiful shuttle just blew up!” He was upset that astronauts had died, and all anyone seemed to care about was the money that had gone into it.
It wasn’t until I got home and watched it on the news that I realized how terrible it was. The cameras were on the faces of Crista Macauley’s parents, and they didn’t know what was happening at first.
When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (10/07/1989)
I was home watching television, of course. It was the beginning of a World Series game (I was still a baseball fan at the time). We weren’t sure of what we were seeing: why did Candlestick Park seem to tilt? We thought something happened to the cameraman.
A day or two later, I was working late. I often worked past six, partly to cover calls from the west coast. (Hard to believe we didn’t have voice mail!) A man called, started to place an order, then said “I gotta go,” and hung up abruptly. I was kind of surprised but not terribly offended; you get all kinds of calls. And then he called back and apologized; there was an aftershock and he really had to leave. But he did place an order.
When the Berlin Wall fell (11/07/1989)
At the actual time it fell? I don’t know. I do remember watching it on the news that evening and being surprised that my kids didn’t realize the significance of it. But then, I had seen it go up and they, of course, had not.
When the Gulf War began (01/16/1991)
Reporters were right there and, on TV, I watched it begin, saw the first bombs. Twenty years earlier I might have been excited; this time I just burst into tears.
One of our students came from the company that produced the night goggles, those gadgets that made everything look green. He later told us they never could have produced all the units necessary, had it not been for the concepts he learned in our classes.
When O.J. Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (06/17/1994)
It was a non-incident, as far as I was concerned. Did I see it the first time? I don’t remember, although I know I saw replays upon replays. I would have changed the channel.
When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (04/19/1995)
I think I got that as part of the news I woke up to. We were not yet accustomed to the idea that people would do such things. It wasn’t until the pictures on TV and in the newspapers that we began to realize the enormity of the crime.
When Princess Di was killed (08/31/1997)
That was a weekend, I think, which means I would have been puttering around the house with radio or TV on in the background. Although I admired the princess, I wasn’t one of her adoring public, and I don’t think the tragedy of it hit me until the funeral. There was one floral piece simply marked “Mummy,” and I just broke down.
When the shooting at Columbine occurred (04/20/1999)
With the time difference, I think I must have been at work. I wouldn’t have found out until I got home. The horror comes later. I would imagine that people with school-aged kids were even more horrified. I used to watch Rosie O’Donnell regularly at that time, and she was nearly overcome.
When Bush was first announced President (11/07/2000)
I don’t remember time or place as much as I remember disgust. No blaze of glory, just a morass of stupidity.
When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center (09/11/2001)
I was dressing for work when there was an announcement that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. I imagined it was something like the small plane that once hit the Empire State Building, but I turned on the TV – just in time to see the second plane circling. Having no perspective as to the size of the plane, I thought it was a surveillance plane from the fire department, until it went behind the first tower and hit the second one. (We didn’t see the collision, just the explosion.) I woke up Husband, knowing he’d want to see this. And then, amazingly enough, I went to work.
U.D. phoned me at the office to tell me the buildings had collapsed. I felt personally violated. I still do.
When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas. (02/01/2003)
M.D. and I were watching old episodes of “M*A*S*H” when the announcement was flashed on the screen. She saw it before I did and went ballistic, as she had seen the Challenger crash when they were watching it in school. (Special privilege, they were watching a news event in school.)
Where were you when the 'Shock and awe' campaign got underway in Iraq (March 22, 2003)
Almost certainly – given the time differential – I was once again home watching TV. Could not believe we were doing this. Why do young people have to die to assuage old men’s egos?
